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SUPPLEMENT 



TO 



AMERICAN GOVERNMENT 



BY 



ROSCOE LEWIS ASHLEY 



COPTKIGHT, 1913, 

By the MACMILLAN COMPANY. 



Set up and electrotyped. Published September, 1913 



NorfaoDB ?3re88 

J. 8. Gushing Co, — Berwick & Smith Co. 

Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. 



©CI.A35427 1 



CHANGES IN AMERICAN GOVERNMENT 

(1909-1913)^ 

IMPOETANT CHANGES OR GENERAL MOVEMENTS 

Constitutional Changes 

The Income Tax Amendment. — For the first time in 43 
years the national Constitution was amended in 1913. This 
sixteenth amendment deals with income taxes. It was pro- 
posed by Congress in July, 1909, and was proclaimed by the 
Secretary of State as a part of the Constitution, in February 
1913, having been ratified by 38 States. (See § 246.) 

The amendment reads as follows : 

Article XVI. The Congress shall have the power to lay 
and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, 
without any apportionment among the several States and 
without regard to any census or enumeration. 

Amendment for the Direct Election of Senators. — An 
amendment, the seventeenth, to provide direct election of 
senators, was proposed by Congress, June 12, 1912, and was 
ratified by three fourths of the States by May, 1913. (See 
§ 304.) 

New States 

New Mexico was admitted to the Union, Jan. 6, 1912, 
and Arizona, February 14, 1912, the number of States now 
being 48. 

Popular Participation in Government 

Woman's Suffrage. — After years of objection, the oppo- 
sition to granting the ballot to American women has broken 

1 The four years from 1909 to 1913 have seen marvelous changes in 
American government. The most important of these are listed in the fol- 
lowing paragraphs, the main text of the book not being cut at the present 
time for the insertion of the new material. For a study of the historical 
changes of these years consult Ashley's American History, revised, Chapter 
XXII, the part on the Rule of the People, 190(5-1914. 

1 



2 AMERICAN GOVERNMENT 

down somewhat. Modern economic and social conditions, 
having given Avoman a new position in the business world, 
are yielding her the ballot as well. In January, 1913, nine 
States made no distinction between men and women as 
voters. These were Wyoming, Colorado, Idaho, Utah, 
Washington, California, Oregon, Arizona, and Kansas. 
Illinois (June, 1913) gave the suffrage to women by statute 
for all statutory of&ces, that is, those not mentioned in the 
state constitution. These include presidential electors, city 
mayors, and many others. 

Direct Nominations. — The nominating convention (§24) is 
being abandoned, being used now in a minority of the States 
for the selection of state and local candidates. Presidential 
candidates were selected by conventions in 1912, but nearly 
one half of the delegates to these conventions were elected 
directly by the people voting in direct primaries (§ 26). 
As the direct primary is in use in all but a very few Western 
States and in some of those in the East, it is the common 
method of selecting candidates and will be the almost uni- 
versal method within a very short time. Many methods are 
in use, however, for determining which voters shall vote for 
candidates of any party, most States permitting each voter 
to have absolute and final choice of the party with which 
he allies himself. 

The Recall. — Control of public oflBcials through the re- 
call (§ 35) has spread from southern California along the 
Pacific Coast and eastward. It may be used in numerous 
cities and is now legal in eight States. Most of these per- 
mit the removal of any elected officials, state or local, at 
the will of the voters. Some of them exempt all judicial 
officials from the recall, the conservatives fearing that 
judges will lose their independence, if the voters may re- 
move them. Theodore Roosevelt has suggested the recall 
of judicial decisions as a means by which court decisions 
may conform to the popular will. 

The Initiative and the Referendum. — The movement for 
direct participation of the voters in government has been 
chiefly through the direct primary and the initiative and the 
referendum. The latter are used now in one third of the 
States for the making of laws, although Oregon is the only 
State in which these methods have been used enough to give 
the people an active share in the work of lawmaking. The 
subject deserves extended consideration. These methods 



IMPORTANT CHANGES OR GENERAL MOVEMENTS 3 

seem to modify the representative character of our govern- 
ment. Coupled with the use of direct nominations and the 
recall, they give the people of most of our western States 
opportunity to exercise direct control over their government. 

Commission Government in Cities 

Within the last iive years nearly 300 of our cities have 
adopted a form of government called government by com- 
mission. A sniall number of commissioners, usually five, is 
elected on a general ticket for a term of two or four years. 
One of them acts as mayor and has charge of an administra- 
tive department. Each of the others is the head of some 
grand department (§ 73). Ordinances are passed, taxes 
levied, and franchises granted by the commission as a whole. 

Advantages claimed for the commission form of govern- 
ment are simplicity of organization, opportunity for cooper- 
ation because the experts who administer the laws are part 
of the lawmaking body, concentration of authority, and the 
opportunity to get good men, because positions of authority 
attract good men and the people can select the best since 
the ballot is short. 

Commission government is still an experiment. It really 
has not been used in large cities, but it is now the form of 
government for about 20% of our urban population, and it 
has been quite successful where it has been tried. Whether 
this success is due to the form of government or to the in- 
creased interest in municipal affairs in those cities which 
have adopted the commission form of government, remains 
to be seen. 

The Protection or Labor 

Child Labor (§ 144). — The last four years have seen con- 
siderable progress in child legislation. Many States have 
adopted the fourteen-year age limit in new occupations. 
The schools cooperate more than formerly in preventing the 
use of child labor during school hours. A national children's 
bureau was created (1911) in the Department of Labor. 

■Women's Hours of Labor. — Since the United States Su- 
preme Court upheld, in the Milller case (1908), the right of a 
State to protect the race by limiting the hours of labor for 
women, many States have passed laws limiting the hours to 
8 to 10 per day, and from 48 to 54 per week. 

Minimum "Wage. — During the winter of 1912-3 several 



4 AiMEEICAy GOTEEXMEXT 

commissions investigated the wages of girls in factories and 
stores. They found that a fair percentage of these girls 
receive less than six dollars per week. The commissions 
have not claimed that morals and wages are inevitably con- 
nected,, but the agitation is leading to the consideration of 
minimum wage laws in several States. 

Compensation for Accidents. — Until recent years no 
employee who was injured in the course of duty could 
secure any compensation except by suing his employer. 
His employer was not liable for damages in most cases be- 
cause the employee (1) "assumed the risk" in dangerous 
occupations, (2) because the employee could obtain nothing 
if he was guilty of •'•' contributory negligence," and (3) the 
employer was not responsible if the injury was caused by a 
••' fellow servant." The national liability law and the new 
liability laws in many of the States no longer allow the 
employers to escape payment because any of these three 
conditions has existed. These new laws protect labor much 
better than it has formerly been protected, but fifteen States 
have gone farther, having adopted some system of compen- 
sation. This permits the employers in certain industries to 
escape liability by agreeing to pay definite amotints to their 
employees who are injured. 

Industilal Arbitration and Conciliation. — In the majority 
of the States there are boards to prevent the use of strikes 
and boycotts on the part of the employees and lockouts and 
blacklists on that of the employers. These boards, with a 
similar national board, have done something to protect the 
jjublic from industrial warfare. 

ReOKGAXIZATIOX IX COXGBESS 

The Insxirgent Movement in the Hoiise of Representatives, 

1910. — The Speaker of the House is not the powerful official 
that he was in 1909 (§ 309). The revolt in Congress in 1910 
against the arbitrary control of the " big three," the Speaker 
and his party associates on the Committee on Rules, deprived 
the Speaker of his jjosition of the Committee on Rules and 
of his power to appoint committees. This " insurgent move- 
ment" gave the House the right to elect all committees, 
made the Committee on Rules (§ 310) a committee of ten 
members, and otherwise curbed the rule of the arbitrary 
leaders of the House. 



IMPORTANT CHANGES OR GENERAL MOVEMENTS 

Change in Senate Customs. — Tlie Senate as well as the 
House has been reorganized (1913). Senatorial committees 
are selected by the Senate in a much more real sense than 
formerlv, for the chairman and members do not hold their 
positions solely by virtue of seniority as formerly (§ 305), 
but at the wish of their colleagues. 

OTHER CHANGES (1909^1913) 

The Short Ballot. — There has been a recent movement to 
shorten the ballot so that voters might not be compelled to 
consider the merits of the candidates for so many positions. 
This movement has been indorsed in cities that have adopted 
the commission form of government and in a few States 
which have made some administrative officials appointive 
instead of elective. 

Civil Service Reform (§§ 44, 74, 326). — By the executive 
orders of President Eoosevelt (1909) and President Taft 
(1912) all fourth-class postmasters, numbering more than 
50,000, have been brought under the (Jivil Service Commis- 
sion. President Wilson compelled all of the fourth-class 
postmasters, who were included in the classified service, to 
take examinations. With other changes since 1909, the 
positions in the classified service now number about 275,000 
out of more than 400,000 national positions in the United 
States and dependencies. 

Civil service reform has made good progress in the cities, 
especially those that have adopted a commission form of 
government, and has made some progress in the state 
governments. 

Railway Commissions (§ § 140, 262). — Since the railway law 
of 1906 changed the national Interstate Commerce Commis- 
sion from an advisory commission to one with power to fix 
maximum rates, most of the States have followed the national 
plan. In consequence very few state publicity commissions 
(§ 140) are now in existence, most of the state commissions 
being of the first class, that is, with power to fix maximum 
rates (p. 135"). A few are public service commissions 
which not only control steam railways, but most other public 
utilities, like street railways, water, light, and perhaps tele- 
phone companies. 

The Interstate Commerce Act of 1910 gave the national 
commission control of interstate telegraph and telephone 



6 AMERICAN GOVERNMENT 

companies, and created a special Court of Commerce to hear 
cases brought from the Interstate Commerce Commission. 
It gives the Commission control of classifications of freights 
as well as rates, and permits the Commission to begin in- 
vestigations without waiting for complaints. 

Panama Canal (§ 234). — Congress has begun fortifying 
the canal. It has also exempted coastwise trading vessels 
which use the canal from the payment of tolls. 

National Taxes. — The sixteenth amendment to the Na- 
tional Constitution makes it possible to levy a national in- 
come tax, since the Supreme Court had denied the right 
before 1913 (§ 246). An income tax will by levied by the 
special session of Congress which met April 7, 1913. 

In 1909 Congress levied a corporation tax of one per cent 
on the net revenue of all corporations in the United States 
above an exempted minimum of $5000. This tax was 
abandoned in 1913. 

The ''Rule of Reason" Method of Trust Control (§ 264). — 
The government of the United States has been quite success- 
ful in its suits against great trusts. The most important 
decisions of the Supreme Court in regard to trusts were the 
cases of the Standard Oil Company and of the Tobacco 
Trust, decided in May, 1911. The court decided that these 
trusts were monopolies and must be dissolved. It held that 
some of their acts were in restraint of interstate trade, but 
it stated that the ''rule of reason " should be applied to 
ascertain whether any restraint was sujBBlcient to make the 
act of restraint contrary to the Sherman Anti-trust Law. 
This practically, if not legally, reversed the position of the 
court as presented in the Northern Securities case (§ 263) and 
in earlier cases. The declaration of the court was opposed 
by many who thought that the court was trying to amend 
the Sherman Act, a power belonging to Congress. 

Changes in Land Laws (§ 278). — The Ballinger-Pinchot 
controversy (1909) over the Alaskan and other coal lands 
aroused great interest in this form of conservation. In 1910 
laws were passed which permitted the withdrawal of nearly 
one hundred million acres of coal lands, pending revalua- 
tion. Large deposits of j)etroleum, phosphate, and other 
valuable minerals have also been withdraAvn from entry. 

In 1912 the national forest reserves covered nearly 
190,000,000 acres. 

Postal Changes (§ 282). — A postal savings bank system 



IMPORTANT CHANGES OE GENERAL MOVEMENTS 7 

went into effect in 1912. It was tried in only a few towns at 
first, but has been extended to all first, second, and third class 
post offices and to about one tenth of the fourth class offices. 

A parcel post system was put into effect in 1913. The 
rates vary according to distance and weight. Packages may 
be sent to a maximum weight of twenty pounds. 

In 1912 the Post Office Department began sending peri- 
odicals by fast freight. For the first time in 30 years the 
Post Office Department showed an apparent excess of receipts 
over expenditures. 

Apportionment for the House of Representatives, 1911 
(§ 307). — In 1911 the ratio was fixed at 1 member to 211,887 
inhabitants, the number of members noAv being 435. 

The Department of Labor (§§ 330-341) was separated from 
the Department of Commerce and Labor, March 4, 1913, 
thus making ten regular members of the Cabinet for the 
first time in history. 

Supreme Coiirt. — In 1913 the Supreme Court of the 
United States was composed as follows : — 



Jtistice 


CiRcniT 


Appointed 


Chief Justice Edward D. White (La.) . . . . 
Associate Justice Joseph McKenna (Cal.) . . 
Associate Justice Oliver W. Holmes (Mass.) 
Associate Justice William R. Day (Ohio) . . 
Associate Justice Horace H. Lurton (Tenn.) . 
Associate Justice Charles E. Hughes (N. Y.) 
Associate Justice Willis Van Devanter (Wyo.) . 
Associate Justice Joseph R. Lamar (Ga.) . . 
Associate Justice Mahlon Pitney (N.J.) . . . 


Fourth 

Ninth 

First 

Sixth 

Seventh 

Second 

Eighth 

Fifth 

Third 


1910 
1898 
1902 
1903 
1909 
1910 
1910 
1910 
1912 



Justice White was appointed an associate justice in 1894. 
During the four years he was in office. President Taft ap- 
pointed five associate justices of the supreme court, and 
filled nearly one half of the national judgeships below the 
supreme court. 



Tkrkitoey 



Area 
Square Miles 



POPtTLATION 



1900 



1910 



District of Columbia 

Alaska 

Hawaii 

Porto Rico 

Phihppines 



70 

590,884 

6,449 

3,435 

115,026 



278,718 

63,592 

154,001 

953,243 

7,000,000 



331,069 
64.356 

191,909 
1,118.012 
7,635;426i 



1 lfi03. 



SEP 18 \m 



APPENDIX D 

THE STATES — AREA AND POPULATION 





Became 


Area 


Population 


Electokal 


State 


Mbmbek 

OP 

Union 


Squake 
Miles 






Vote 




1911) 


1900 


1910 1900 


Alabama . . . • 


1819 


51,998 


2,138,093 


1,828,697 


12 


11 


Arizona . . . 




1912 


113,956 


204,354 


122,931 


3 


— 


Arkansas . . 




1836 


53,335 


1,574,449 


1,311,564 


9 


9 


California . . 




1850 


158,297 


2,377,549 


1,485,053 


13 


10 


Colorado . . . 




1876 


103,948 


799,024 


539,700 


6 


5 


Connecticut . . 




1788 


4,965 


1,114,756 


908,420 


7 


7 


Delaware 




1787 


2,370 


202,322 


184,735 


3 


3 


Florida . . . 




1845 


58,666 


752,619 


528,542 


6 


5 


Georgia . . 




1788 


59,265 


2,609,121 


2,216.331 


14 


13 


Idaho .... 




1890 


83,888 


325,594 


161,772 


4 


3 


Illinois . . 




1818 


56,665 


5,638,591 


4,821,550 


29 


27 


Indiana . . 




1816 


36,354 


2,700,876 


2,516,462 


15 


15 


loVva . • . 




1846 


56,147 


2,224,771 


2,231,853 


13 


13 


Kansas 




1861 


82,158 


1,690,949 


1,470,495 


10 


10 


Kentucky . 




1792 


40,598 


2,289,905 


2,147,174 


13 


13 


Louisiana 




1812 


48,506 


1,656,388 


1,381,625 


10 


1 9 


Maine . 




1820 


33,040 


742,371 


694,466 


6 


6 


Maryland 




1788 


12,327 


1,295,346 


1,188,044 


8 


8 


Massachusetts 




1788 


8,266 


3,366,416 


2,805,346 


18 


16 


Michigan 




1837 


57,980 


2,810,173 


2,420,982 


15 


14 


Minnesota . 




1858 


84,682 


2,075,708 


1,751,394 


12 


11 


Mississippi . 




1 1817 


46,865 


1,797,114 


1,551,270 


10 


10 


Missouri . . 




1 1821 


69,420 


3,293,335 


3,106,665 


18 ! 18 


Montana . 




1889 


146,997 


376,053 


243,329 


4 : 3 


Nebraska 




1867 


77,520 


1,192,214 


1,066,300 


8 : 8 


Nevada . 




1864 


110,690 


81,875 


42,335 


3 3 


New Hampshir 


e . 


1788 


9,341 


430,572 


411,588 


4 ! 4 


New Jersey . 




1787 


8,224 


2,537,167 


1,883,669 


14 12 


New Mexico 




1912 


122,634 


327,301 


195,310 


3 — 


New York . 




1788 


49,204 


9,113,614 


7,268,012 


45 ' 39 


North Carolina 




1789 


52,426 


2,206,287 


1,893,810 


12 12 


North Dakota 




1889 


70,837 


577,056 


319,146 


5 ! 4 


Ohio . . . 




1803 


41,040 


4,767,121 


4,157,545 


24 ! 23 


Oklahoma . 




1907 


70,057 


1,657,155 


790,391 


10 1 71 


Oregon . . 
Pennsylvania 




1859 


96,699 


672,765 


413,536 


5 1 4 




1787 


45,126 


7,665,111 


6,-302,115 


38 \ 34 


Rhode Island 




1790 


1,248 


542,610 


428,556 


5 1 4 


South Carolina 




1788 


30,989 


1,515,400 


1,340,316 


9 1 9 


South Dakota 




1889 


77,615 


583,888 


401,570 


5 


4 


Tennessee 




1796 


42,022 


2,184,789 


2,020,616 


12 


12 


Texas . • . 




1845 


265,896 


3,896,542 


3,048,710 


20 


18 


Utah . . . 




1896 


84,990 


373,351 


276,749 


4 


3 


Vermont . . 




1791 


9,564 


355.956 


343,641 


4 


4 


Virginia . . 




1788 


42,627 


2,061,612 


1,854,184 


12 


12 


Washington . 




1889 


69,127 


1,141,990 


518,103 


7 


.5 


West Virginia 




1863 


24,170 


1,221,119 


958,800 


8 


7 


Wisconsin . 




1848 


56,066 


2,333,860 


2,069,042 


13 


13 


Wyoming 




1890 


97,914 


145,965 


92,531 


3 


3 


Total States 







3,026,719 


91,641,197 


75,615,857 


631 


483 



1 lf)07. 



